Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

In a folder called Old Stuff, there lies another folder called Physical Progress. Inside that folder is a picture named MyGoal dated July 22, 2002. I KNOW the picture is older than that, but that July five years ago was the last time I opened it. It is a photo of my face on Jennifer Love Hewitt’s body.

I’ve never shared this before because I’m quite embarrassed by the photo. Not only is it not my best job at photoshopping, it doesn’t look like me. It probably will never look like me because my body is shaped differently than hers. I have a shorter waist and it’s a bloody pain to straighten my hair like that. Embarrassing or not, my goal was to look like Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Everywhere I turned last week, I saw Jennifer Love Hewitt defending her body. Every grocery store had her declaring “I’m not fat!” on every checkout line. Damn straight, she’s not fat. She’s freakin’ perfect! She’s my goal embodied and running around in a bikini! Why should she have to defend herself?

Apparently TMZ.com thinks that a size 2 is fat and announced it for all to see. Instead of caving to the insanity of it all, Jennifer defended herself beautifully on her website:

I’ve sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women’s bodies are constantly scrutinized. To set the record straight, I’m not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image.

A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn’t make you beautiful. … To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini – put it on and stay strong.

Thanks, Jennifer. I think I’ll forgo the bikini right now, but I will stay strong. Thanks for being such a great role model for me.